iMovie 8 Thumbs Down

Safe Netting guru Joe Showker points out some rather bad news for iMovie fans…

Joe writes in to rant about iMovie 8, and the fact that it will NOT install on most computers more than 2-3 years old!!!! Joe provides some selected quotes, and a link to the whole story… and points us to David Pogue’s journal….

Quoting Pogue:

> iMovie ‘08 is an utter bafflement.

Just when we’re learning and really getting the hang of a software product, along comes the next version. Sometimes it’s wonderful — particularly when the software programmers are savvy enough to build new features into a fully functioning, well-accepted package.

Pogue says:

> Most people are used to a product cycle that
> goes like this:
> Release a new version every year or two,
> each more capable than the last.
> Ensure that it’s backward-compatible with
> your existing documents.
>
> iMovie ‘08, on the other hand, has been totally
> misnamed. It’s not iMovie at all. In fact,
> it’s nothing like its predecessor and
> contains none of the same code or design.
> It’s designed for an utterly different task,
> and a lot of people are screaming bloody murder.

It seems Apple has removed many of the most liked features, like audio editing and support for plug-ins. Could they be attempting to drive everyone to their higher priced ‘pro’ product now that they’ve gotten people hooked on easy movie editing.

One long-standing user group ambassador laments:

> I believe that Apple should rename iMovie ’08.
> Instead, call it HomeMovie.
> I can see how it would be a breeze, if you’re
> dumping off holiday footage and want to make a
> movie to “share” effortlessly.
>
> But for those of us who learned iMovie’s
> counter-intuitive and un-edit-like software
> execution (not to mention abandoning 3rd party
> vendors), this piece of software is useless.
> Is Apple trying to drive up sales of FCE and FCP?
>
> I hate to say this but Apple is starting to
> act like Microsoft, circa the late 90′s.

Pogue says:

> The new iMovie doesn’t accept plug-ins, either. (clip)
> You can’t add chapter markers for use in iDVD, which
> is supposed to be integrated with iMovie.
> Bookmarks are gone.
> Themes are gone.
> You can no longer export only part of a movie.
> All visual effects are gone — even basic options
> like slow motion, reverse motion, fast motion (clip)
> And you can’t have more than one project open at a time.
> Incredibly, the new iMovie can’t even
> convert older iMovie projects.

It looks like what Apple is trying to tell you is
KEEP iMovie 6 — DO NOT UPGRADE.

Now, if you must have version 8, then install the upgrade on a different Mac, and then run BOTH. But beware of the cross-compatibility and backwards-compatibility issues.

Most disturbing? Pogue says:

> On top of all that, this more limited iMovie
> has steep horsepower requirements that rule
> out most computers older than
> about two years old.

You can read David’s blog posting at :

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/